Do you toss away or recycle your household items the moment they break? Don’t worry, that’s pretty normal. However, there’s a smarter and thriftier way you could be dealing with those broken things. Here are just a few clever ways to re-use some broken items you may have around the house.
Take those broken planters you have and reuse them in the garden! You can write the name of plants or herbs that you’re growing onto the shards and them stick them in the ground to act as name plates!
Take a broken desk, cut it cleaning in half, and then use each half as a wall desk! This looks especially great if you have a wall with a window in the middle that adds to the symmetry of the room.
Something I hate about 3-ring binders is that the rings seem to break so easily. Instead of throwing the whole thing out, just remove the rings, add some fabric, and you’ve got a great binder to hold art supplies!
Take the tab from soda bottles and put them around the neck of your hangers. This allows you to hang a hanger from the tab, essentially doubling the amount of storage space in your closet.
If you have a chipped or broken picture frame, you can easily re-use it as an earring display. Simply string some lace or twine on the inside and hang your earrings from them.
If you broke a CD or DVD, have no fear! Instead of throwing away the pieces, you can attach them picture-side up to a ball or something else and get a great glass decoration! This works for Christmas ornaments, or just a decoration around the home at any time of year.
Take your broken plates and use them to line the outside of your garden. Not only does this add a touch of style and color to your yard, but it will also keep people aware of where the boundary between yard and garden is.
Something else you can do with your plates, if you have all the broken pieces, is to make some fancy wall art! You simply hang each of the pieces up by their counterparts until the art is complete.
Melt those stubby old crayons and combine them together to make a new mega crayon! You can also turn it into a candle or some other waxy masterpiece!
Watches that don’t work anymore can be repurposed into a vintage bracelet! You can even put the picture of someone inside so it becomes a sort of locket.
If you really want to go with the industrial feel to your home, turn an old washing bin drum into a nightstand. You really don’t have to do much, actually—you just flip the drum upside down and you’re good!
Take your chipped tea cups and turn them into a bird feeder! You can stack them and organize the tea cups however you like—just make it look good so you and the birds like it!
I bet you never thought of making a cute mobile out of old and broken necklaces, did you? It’s super easy! Just find something you want to hang it from, and then dangle the necklaces in a fun and pretty way!
Take the clips that have broken off of your pants hangers and use them for chip clips, magnets, or other clippy purposes. You’ll realize just how useful clips are when you start using them so much more!
If your flip flop recently broke, don’t worry about it. You can make a new, even more comfortable flip flop, out of some rope or other cord. Just find a tutorial online that you like and go for it.
Take your old wire or wicker baskets and turn them into a light fixture. This could be for inside or outside; it doesn’t really matter. Simply wire the cord through the top and you’re good to go!
For an old bicycle wheel, repurpose it to become a chandelier. You can hang and drape the lights all around the inside and outside of the wheel to make it look spectacular!
If you don’t want the bicycle rack as a chandelier then you can use it as a pot rack! Simply find a place in the kitchen for the pot rack and then put it up! It doesn’t require much work at all.
Do you need a place to put your cellphone when it’s charging? Well, you can make a cellphone holder out of a baby lotion bottle. Yeah, it’s a thing, and it looks GREAT!
Take two broken chairs and you can fuse them together to make this wonderful French bench! You can put it inside, but it looks really great in the backyard or garden.
I think this idea is fabulous, especially if you love to travel and see the world. Take the broken globe and turn each side into a lampshade. This decoration is a great idea and looks great in any home.
If you don’t need a lampshade, then you can turn the broken globe into a table bowl! Put it on the table, coffee table, or even on a bookshelf. Just put it wherever it looks best.
For those broken ladders, especially if they’re rustic-y, you can turn them into shelves and racks in your home! Sand and paint them if they need it, and then lean it up against the wall.
A great planter idea for your yard (if you have the space) is to reuse an old dresser. You can put the soil in the shelves and then grow different plants and flowers in each shelf.
For broken bowls, plates, and dinnerware, you can use the pieces to make ground cover and stepping stones. The colors really add a pop to your backyard, especially if you can get them to match the flowers and other plants in your garden.
If you have kids that love to play pretend, then re-use an old entertainment center as a play kitchen! Now, obviously you’d want it to be safe, so make sure that’s in order first. And then you can add all the fun decorations and items for your kids to play with.
Take your broken jewelry and turn it into magnets for your fridge! The earrings work as small magnets or you can take the broken parts of a necklace and turn them into magnets.
For that broken stemware you have, you don’t need to throw it away! Instead, just stick a candle in it and then stick it in a planter. This makes the planter look great and also make the whole backyard look fantastic.
Don’t just throw away the broken Christmas ornaments that you have. Be careful to not cut yourself, but you can crush the pieces into glitter and use it for other decorations and designs. The sky is the limit!
For a broken chair, you can turn it into a great tree swing! Simply make sure the integrity of the chair is still intact and, if it is, strap it up by some rope and put it in the tree!
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